Roberta Settels Isolation

Roberta Settels is an American composer and industrial designer, currently living in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied composition at Juliard in New York, and during the 70-ties and 80-ties, composed electronic music in Stockholm at EMS, and in Paris at IRCAM, and studied with the composeres Pierre Boulez and Iannis Xenakis. Later she created her own studio. Isolation from 1985 is her only released recording. It was released on her private label "Music in Crisis". Although 'Isolation' was composed in 1985, most parts of it sound very fresh and contemporary. Very unique for it's time, the timbres and formal progression of the work bare little resemblance to the electroacoustic maximalism of the period. Rather it shares aesthetics with contemporary genres such as Lowercase and Microsound. The music, all generated by pure analog means, contains elements of extreme minimalism and splicing-techniques derived from the tape-music tradition. Even though the work, making clever use of sine-waves and white noise, it is very minimal in it's expression, and very clearly communicates the emotional states of lonliness and isolation which are it's conceptual aim. The work is divided into four parts: Landscape With 3 tape-recorders And... , Scenario, Isolation (Meinhof In Memoriam) and P1 - Information?, forming a perceived whole. This re-release comes in a limited edition with a custom-made plastic sleeve, with the original cover and cover-notes in Swedish, English, German and French, written and designed by the composer.